Consent

Vladimir Nabokov's ""Lolita"" is a suggestive young girl who sends the protagonist into despair, or as it was told... But, if Lolita narrates her memoir, what would she say to us? It is precisely what Vanessa Filho surprises us in her most awaited feature, ""Consent"", an adaptation of the same name that depicts an autobiographical portrayal of the writer, Vanessa Spingora. Paris, 1985. Vanessa is thirteen years old when she meets Gabriel Matzneff, a renowned fifty-year-old writer. The young teenager becomes the lover and muse of this man, celebrated by the cultural and political world. Losing herself in the relationship, she suffers more and more violently from the destructive influence this predator exercises over her. Her suffering intensifies as Gabriel publishes the intimate details of their relationship to the world, humiliating and subjecting her to public condemnation. Battered and victimized, Vanessa finally musters herself to ""taking the hunter in his own trap."" ""Consent"" is Filho (Angel Face, 2018) and Cinematographer Guillame Schiffman (The Artist, 2012) second collaboration. It is provocative and cerebral, an intriguing narrative ameliorated by exquisite visual language. It is a rare jewel for all cinephiles craving a sincere cinematic experience. Milani Perera